Gebrüder Müller
Encyclopedia
The Gebrüder Müller was the name of a noted German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 (Duchy of Brunswick
Duchy of Brunswick
Brunswick was a historical state in Germany. Originally the territory of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in the Holy Roman Empire, it was established as an independent duchy by the Congress of Vienna in 1815...

) string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

 composed of four brothers.

Players

The brothers were the sons as well as pupils of the principal musician to the Duke of Brunswick
Duchy of Brunswick
Brunswick was a historical state in Germany. Originally the territory of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in the Holy Roman Empire, it was established as an independent duchy by the Congress of Vienna in 1815...

, and were all of them born in the city of Brunswick. Carl Friedrich Müller (1797–1873) was first violin in the quartet and was also concertmaster
Concertmaster
The concertmaster/mistress is the spalla or leader, of the first violin section of an orchestra. In the UK, the term commonly used is leader...

 to the Duke. Theodor Heinrich Müller (1799–1855) was the viola player. August Theodor Müller (1802–75) played the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

, and Franz Ferdinand Georg Müller (1808–55) was the second violin. They were especially educated by their father for quartet work, and were conceded to have brought the art of string quartet playing to a degree of perfection previously unknown.

The Müller brothers were ambitious for greater fame than could be obtained within their own limited environment, but their employer, the Duke of Brunswick, had stipulated that none of his musicians should participate in any musical performance outside that connected with his own corps. So in 1830 they resigned their employment. Their first appearance outside Brunswick was in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, where they met with such success that they were invited to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, where they were received with great enthusiasm. An extended tour throughout Germany followed, and in 1837 they performed in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. Other tours made them known throughout the world.

They confined their programmes almost entirely to the works of Haydn, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, and Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

, and were also a very important influence in cultivating music appreciation
Music appreciation
Music appreciation is teaching people what to listen for and to appreciate different types of music. Usually music appreciation classes involve some history lessons to explain why people of a certain era liked the music that they did...

.
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